[ Poverty Guidelines Main
Page ]
[ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ]
[ Further Resources on
Poverty Measurement, Poverty Lines, and Their
History ]
Mollie Orshansky in 1967
Social Security Administration History Archives
[Full sized image]
-
Mollie
Orshansky: Author of the Poverty Thresholds, Amstat
News, Issue #375, September 2008, pp. 15-18 [PDF - 4 pages]
-
While Orshanskys development of the poverty thresholds
was a major milestone in both social policy history and statistical history,
it grew out of ordinary work activities an answer for the
record for a congressional hearing and an in-house research
project
.
-
Remembering
Mollie Orshansky The Developer of the Poverty
Thresholds, Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 68, No. 3, December
2008, pp. 79-83 [PDF - 5 pages]
-
In December 2006, Mollie Orshansky, known to many as Ms. Poverty, died
at age 91 after a long government career during which she did pioneering
research on poverty and the measurement of income inadequacy
.
-
In-Depth
Research Social Security Pioneers: Mollie Orshansky (web
page on Social Security History web site)
-
In 1976 Miss Orshansky received the Distinguished Service Award
from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in recognition for
her leadership in creating the first nationally accepted measures of income
adequacy and applying them to public policy
.
-
Deborah A. Stone,
Making
the Poor Count, The American Prospect, No. 17, Spring 1994,
pp. 84-88
-
In Counting the Poor, Orshansky put a days
food allowance into the figurative housewifes pocket and asked readers
to share her plight: The poverty line would allow a housewife
with a husband and two kids about 70 cents a day per person for
food
.
I asked Orshansky if she had always wanted to do
something for children or against poverty. But my question came from
a different generation and a different economic experience. I
never thought of what I wanted to be
. You didnt plan to
be anything you planned to get a job.
-
Remarks on Mollie
Orshanskys Life, Career, and Achievements (delivered at a
conference in August 2008) [PDF - 8 pages]
-
Mollies achievements were based not on academic prominence
or high official position but on her knowledge and the skill with which she
used it. Her knowledge of poverty was not only technical and academic but
also experiential; she knew first-hand what it was like to grow up
poor
.
-
Some Stories
About Mollie Orshansky (remarks presented at a conference in November
2007) [ PDF - 8 pages]
-
Mollie remembered going with her mother to stand in relief lines
to get surplus food. As she grew up, she became quite familiar with the
experience of having to forgo one small purchase in order to have the money
for something else. She later summed up this aspect of her early life by
saying, If I write about the poor, I dont need a good
imagination I have a good memory.
Of the contributions to American public policy that Orshansky made during
her career, the greatest by far was her
Development of the Poverty Thresholds.
This provides links to long and short versions of an article on Orshanskys
development of the poverty thresholds and their subsequent history as the
official U.S. poverty measure.
-
Selected Articles and Papers by Mollie Orshansky
About the Poverty Thresholds and the Poverty Population (bibliography)
-
This page lists eight articles and papers that Orshansky wrote, mostly during
the 1960s and 1970s.
-
A Chronological Bibliography of Mollie
Orshanskys Publications (Including Congressional Testimony)
-
This document lists all of Orshanskys known publications and testimony,
both on poverty and on other subjects, from 1947 to 1990. It includes the
eight selected articles and papers referenced above.
Go to Further Resources on Poverty Measurement,
Poverty Lines, and Their History
Go to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Return to the main Poverty Guidelines, Research,
and Measurement page.
Last Revised: 05/17/10